Teaching During Early Childhood | Study

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD
EARLY CHILDHOOD
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EARLY CHILDHOOD
If teaching as well as learning in early childhood is of high quality then there will be
healthy development and success for the child. Currently people are focusing on including
early literacy in the child where he will be getting early education in science that will expose
them to integrated curriculum. This early learning will help in shaping the minds of the child
as well as help them to sharpen their skills (McLachlan, Fleer & Edwards 2018). However, a
child will only respond to learning in a positive way when his early needs are met. There are
many concepts that influence the learning pattern of a child. The primary aim of the essay is
to discuss the process of learning and teaching in early childhood linked to many concepts
and principles.
Intentional teaching is a way of teaching where educators tend to be thoughtful as
well as deliberate in the decisions that they make where they support children in exploring
and learning new ideas. Therefore, it is the responsibility of parents as well as the teachers to
impart knowledge by taking help from various principles (McLaughlin, Aspden & Snyder
2016). One such principle that support early learning and teaching are the Biblical principles.
The Bible has positive views about children and considers every child to be the child of God.
It states that every child should be treated in a fair and justified manner that will make him an
honest individual (Miller, 2019). On the other hand as stated by Adger, Snow & Christian
(2016) the principles of the Bible teaching children should be according to the words of the
God and should not be according to the intentions of the educator. Thus while teaching a
child the latter should be considered as unique and different from others. His individual
teaching needs should be met (Adger, Snow & Christian 2016). The child should not be
neglected for being weak as the cognitive skills of each child differs. The second principle
regarding a child in the Bible is to give every child equal attention. This can be applied to
early teaching as well as education. This means that it is essential to first understand the
learning needs of the child and then communicate with the child according to his needs (Van,

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2018). To give attention to the child it is necessary to maintain eye contact with him so that
they feel wanted.
Furthermore Van (2018) states that there is principle of praise for every child that has
been mentioned in the Bible. This again can be applied to early education where the child
should be praised for his god work that will encourage him to do more activities and learn
new things. If children are not praised and encouraged for their work then it lowers their
morale and discourages them (Van, 2018). Therefore, every child should be appreciated for
their pace of learning that will help them to sharpen their cognitive as well as motor skills.
Thirdly the biblical principle states that there should be encouragement for every child. This
encouragement can be in the form of rewards as well as new activities that will help the child
to further explore themselves and interact with other children that will shape their social skills
(Adger, Snow & Christian 2016). Again as mentioned by McLaughlin, Aspden & Snyder
(2016) teaching children about biblical principles will help them appreciate themselves as
well as their identity. When children will know how they came they will be able to
understand world from the perspective of God. The educators can also teach children the
value of respect that is also one of the principles in the Bible (McLaughlin, Aspden &
Snyder, 2016). One of the most essential principle regarding children that is mentioned in the
Bible is giving the child utmost care and affection (Gilson, 2019). The two aspects are crucial
for the development as well as learning in early childhood that will help the child to raise his
bar and try new things in the field of learning that will help in developing his brain.
As the principles of the Bible talks about the child and the educator the concept of
constructivism is different from the former. The constructivist focuses on the social context
as well as the larger community that does not depend on the instructions that is individually
based but focuses on the teaching among large peers and students (Chambers, Cheung &
Slavin, 2016). There are two kinds of constructivism that help the early childhood learning as

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well as teaching they are- cognitive constructivism as well as sociocultural constructivism.
These theories dates back to John Locke who stated that knowledge comes from experience
and mention of Jean Jacques Rousseau should also be made who stated that education should
be child centered where the child plays the role of the determiner and decided what
knowledge is essential to learn (Chambers, Cheung & Slavin, 2016). On the other hand John
Dewey mentioned that all knowledge is derived from social relationships. Cognitive
constructivism is based on Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. He stated that child
is an explorer who investigates the things that are around him and tries to construct his own
understanding according to the experience that the child goes through (Pardjono, 2016).
According to him there are three types of experience that is related to knowledge construction
such as- physical, mathematical and social experience. The theory was essential as it laid
down the different levels of development that enabled them to construct their learning (Waite,
2017). On the other hand social constructivism theory was propagated by Lev Vygotsky
where he emphasized on the importance of society, language as well as culture towards the
construction of knowledge (Pardjono, 2016). According to him knowledge is socially
constructed and children learn within social as well as physical context. Learning during early
childhood according through the concept of constructivism occurs when the child interact
socially with other individuals (Bozkurt, 2017). In both the forms of constructivism learning
is seen as in essential aspect in the life of the child where children responds according to their
experiences as well as understanding (Aljohani, 2017). Though the several concepts of
constructivism is almost same in their vision of educating children yet there is a difference in
the role of the teacher. Every teacher has different methods and strategies of teaching and
making the child learn. Therefore, every teacher to make the constructivist approach
successful should play the role of a guide as well as a facilitator.